Patients often ask about dietary considerations during chemotherapy in outpatient clinics, but due to time constraints, I am unable to give a detailed reply each time. Recently, I read an article about dietary advice during chemotherapy in Oncology Time, which is reproduced below, and I hope it will be beneficial to patients.
Chemotherapy is an important treatment for cancer, but while they kill cancer cells, they can also damage other normal cells, leading to a series of adverse reactions that can seriously affect the quality of life. This may be improved if some attention is paid to the diet. Here are some suggestions to adjust the diet.
1.Improve appetite
During chemotherapy patients need more nutrition, but chemotherapy drugs often make people lose their appetite. You can drink some yogurt, vegetable soup, eat some sweet snacks, eat bread with some peanut butter or other jams. Making food taste heavier and sweeter may improve appetite.
2.Make food more delicious
Chemotherapy can damage the taste buds, making some food taste strange, and plain water can make you find it difficult to swallow. This time, we must find ways to make food more delicious, for example, you can add some lemon to the plain water. If you can not stand the taste of lean meat, you can eat more eggs, fish, drink some skim milk and so on to supplement protein.
3.Ease mouth ulcers
During chemotherapy, the immune system will be reduced, and some patients will have mouth ulcers. To promote the healing of mouth ulcers, you should avoid drinking alcohol, eating spicy, overheated irritating food. Drinking more water and gargling with light salt water will help the ulcers heal.
4.How to reduce nausea
Ginger candy, peppermint candy or ginger tea can help reduce nausea. Eating slightly cooler foods can reduce nausea than hot foods. Also avoid greasy, fried food, food with a lot of spices, like Thai food and so on as little as possible.
5, eat less and more meals
During chemotherapy, eating more meals is more conducive to the absorption of food nutrients, and can reduce the symptoms of nausea and vomiting.
6., improve constipation
Drink more water is a good way to fight constipation. You have to start eating more vegetables and fruits with high fiber if you previously ate a variety of high fiber foods less, but you should not rush, but slowly adjust the diet structure. At the same time, do some appropriate exercise, such as walking and so on, on the gastrointestinal motility is also helpful, can fight constipation.
7.Fighting diarrhea
When you have diarrhea, eat less or no greasy food and fried food. Also, drink less coffee, sugary drinks, mixers, fruit juices, etc., and eat less of various salads and raw foods. You can drink more porridge, eat more potatoes, pumpkin, etc.
8.Avoid dehydration
Diarrhea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy may lead to dehydration. You may have mild dehydration when the following conditions occur: dry mouth or feeling sticky in the mouth, sunken eye sockets, little urine or dark urine, and reduced tears. The most important way to avoid dehydration is to drink plenty of water and not to wait until you are thirsty to remember to drink.
9.Consult a nutritionist
A professional dietitian can give you useful advice on how to choose and match ingredients and balance the intake of various nutrients to solve the various dietary problems you encounter while undergoing chemotherapy.
10.Keep a diet diary
Write down what you ate and whether you felt uncomfortable afterwards. This will help you and the dietitian to better determine which foods are making you uncomfortable and can better regulate your diet.